Woman moved out and left dog to starve to death

A WOMAN has been banned from keeping pets for life after she let her dog starve to death. Mother-of-one Andrea Jones, 34, abandoned Staffordshire bull terrier Mutley when she quit her filthy rented house in Cardale Walk, Harpurhey.

Housing officers found the eight-year-old dog’s skeletal and flea-covered body after they went to board up the house more than a month later.

But it was so filthy that they only noticed the body when they looked at photographs they had taken inside.

The rooms were covered with rotting dog faeces and full of rubbish. No food or water had been left for Mutley, which Jones had had since he was a puppy.

But Jones escaped jail after she was prosecuted following an RSPCA investigation.

David McCormick, prosecuting, said a housing officer found the house in an ‘appalling’ condition in January this year.

He said: "She described it as one of the worst she had seen.

"She said everywhere she walked there was rotting dog faeces and the property was full of dirty items all over the floors.

"She said the stench was overwhelming and she had to leave the property because she was gagging."

At Manchester Magistrates’ Court, Jones, of Millway Walk, Newton Heath, admitted two charges of causing unnecessary suffering and one charge of failing to meet a dog’s needs.

Mr McCormick said the housing officer returned with a colleague in protective clothing to take photographs. One of them ran back inside the house after they spotted Mutley’s body on a picture they had taken.

He said: "The dog was severely emaciated and all the rib bones and leg joints were visible."

A vet who later examined the body for the RSPCA found it was just over half its normal weight. He believed it had been left to starve a month earlier.

Jones later told housing officers she had moved out before Christmas because she ‘got depressed’. She claimed she had given Mutley to a friend.

Liane Press, defending, said Jones, who has a young daughter, suffered a mental breakdown and had left the house after her ex-partner moved on to the street. She added: "She comes from a dog-loving family and is very ashamed and appalled by her behaviour."

Jones was given a 24-week jail sentence, suspended for two years. She received a two-year supervision order and was told to do 250 hours unpaid work.

She was banned from owning or keeping animals for life and told she could not apply for this ruling to be amended until 2019. She was also told to pay £520 costs.

Magistrates told Jones: "It would be far better if you did not keep an animal of any kind in the future."

RSPCA inspector Catherine Byrnes said after the hearing: "This is one of the most horrifying cases of neglect that I have seen. This dog was left to starve to death. It’s as if it was just pushed aside and forgotten about."